NHLPA director Donald Fehr on Friday continued to place the onus for a potential work stoppage on the owners and explained some of the rationale behind the union's "alternate proposal" for a new CBA—particularly why a 50/50 revenue split is not palatable for his side.

On Wednesday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman effectively dismissed the union's plan, which featured expanded revenue sharing and a hold on how much revenue players receive, but did not contain the widespread cost reduction the league openly seeks.

Part of Bettman's point: The NFL and NBA, after their own recent work stoppages, moved closer to a 50/50 split, rather than the league's current 57/43 arrangement in favor of the players.

The comparison, Fehr said on a Friday media conference call, is not apples-to-apples. He cited difference in the way revenues are calculated and, in the case of the NFL, much more projected growth via TV contracts.

Fehr's other main points: the players' fair-market share is already much greater than 57 percent, the salary cap artificially lowers that number and the non-hockey revenue spit is essentially already 50/50.

The league's plan, essentially, is to put more money in its owners pockets via decreased player salaries. The players want that bump to come from diverting revenue windfalls to the owners—essentially passing on more money themselves—and a transition of funds from wealthier teams to poorer teams—revenue sharing.

The changes to player contracts that the owners' proposal entailed—10 years before free agency, for example—aren't palatable to the union, either, Fehr said.

He also continued reinforcing what's become a tentpole of the union's public stance: They don't want to miss games.

"All I can tell you, and all I can tell the fans, is that nobody on the players' side is talking about stopping the season," Fehr said.

Bettman has said that the league will not operate past Sept. 15 on the current CBA, though it theoretically could.

On Thursday, subcommittees met to discuss non-economic issues, which Fehr hopes leads to more common ground.

"My impression is that they were workmanlike sessions, the kinds you absolutely have to have," Fehr said of Thursday's talks, which he did not attend, rather using the rest of the week to meet with players in Chicago and Kelowna, British Columbia.